empathy
Feeling what others feel: whether it makes better makers, leaders and people, or is a poor guide that should give way to compassion.
FilterEveryone, all time26 from 20 people
- DH
David Heinemeier Hansson quoted
Creator of Ruby on Rails, CTO of 37signals
Their wordsThe next generation coming up is unbelievably based. They've seen what suicidal empathy has wrought upon their nations.
- 3 weeks earlier
- NY
Nan Yu quoted
Works on product for Codex at OpenAI
Our readingSystems thinking and user empathy in agent design are the old product principles in disguise.
Their wordsI I I think those are very important but ultimately they're just the old principles in disguise.
↗Stop planning for 2027: how OpenAI builds product 90 days at a time | Tara Sesha and Nan Yu (OpenAI) (Lenny & Friends Summit, San Francisco, 10 September 2026)youtube.com 7th of 18 in this recording
- TS
Tara Seshan quoted
Product lead for ChatGPT Work at OpenAI
Their wordsthe third thing that you just really need in addition to user empathy and systems thinking is like a relentlessness to like try it out and keep iterating
↗Stop planning for 2027: how OpenAI builds product 90 days at a time | Tara Sesha and Nan Yu (OpenAI) (Lenny & Friends Summit, San Francisco, 10 September 2026)youtube.com 8th of 18 in this recording
- 2 months earlier
- KB
Kent Beck quoted
Creator of extreme programming and test-driven development
Their wordsThere are people who say, "Well, it's up to the rest of the world to adapt to the ways that I'm weird." It's just not because I mean, it's not going to happen. So, learning empathy, learning how to read body language, learning how to read tone of voice, this is not natural skills, but they're skills. They're learnable.
↗How Kent Beck shapes the software engineering industryyoutube.com 21st of 28 in this recording
- 2 weeks earlier
- JJ
Justin Jackson quoted
Canadian bootstrapper and writer on small software businesses
Our readingFace-to-face interaction conveys understanding and empathy that text-based communication does not.
Their wordsIn person, it's easier to grok where someone's coming from. It's simpler to see how they're feeling.
↗We have a communication problemjustinjackson.ca 2nd of 2 in this piece
- 4 weeks earlier
- YX
Yihui Xie quoted
Statistician and software engineer who writes R packages…
Their wordsAll they need before they can truly appreciate empathy and humanity is one thing: have one of their own posts closed and deleted by another group of gatekeepers.
- 3 weeks earlier
- ES
Evan Spiegel quoted
Co-founder and CEO of Snap Inc.
Our readingListening to customers is invaluable, but you should not build the thing they asked you for.
Their wordsAll of those insights that we you know, received just from listening to folks made a huge difference in the product design process, but we didn't build exactly what they asked for. We we empathized and then you know, came up with something new.
↗How to win when software is not a moat | Evan Spiegel (Snapchat CEO)youtube.com 14th of 22 in this recording
- ES
Evan Spiegel quoted
Their wordsDesign is really about, you know, empathizing with your customer, empathizing with your audience, your viewer, whoever it is, and then building something that will really resonates with them. And And that means you need to have a an extraordinary amount of range.
↗How to win when software is not a moat | Evan Spiegel (Snapchat CEO)youtube.com 18th of 22 in this recording
- 2 months earlier
- LF
Lex Fridman quoted
AI researcher and host of the Lex Fridman Podcast
Their wordsIt’s actually how good they are at programming is almost a burden in their ability to empathize with the system that’s starting from scratch. It’s a totally new paradigm of, like, how to program. You really, really have to empathize.
↗OpenClaw: The Viral AI Agent that Broke the Internet - Peter Steinberger | Lex Fridman Podcast #491youtube.com 16th of 30 in this recording
- 9 months earlier
- TS
Tim Sweeney quoted
Founder and CEO of Epic Games
Their wordsI think the lesson from all of that is that humans talking to humans and being together in the real world or a virtual world, is a naturally empathetic medium, which naturally leads to bonding, and though conflict sometimes occurs, it's just generally so much more promoting of our social norms and good interactions between people and positivity promoting.
↗Tim Sweeney: Fortnite, Unreal Engine, and the Future of Gaming | Lex Fridman Podcast #467youtube.com 22nd of 22 in this recording
- 2 months earlier
- AG
Adam Grant quoted
Organizational psychologist and professor at the Wharton School
Their wordsFiction is also better for enhancing empathy than watching TV and movies. Across 70 experiments, novels did more to boost concern for and understanding of others.
- 9 months earlier
- PB
Paul Bloom quoted
Psychologist at the University of Toronto and professor emeritus at Yale
Their wordsMy argument against empathy is limited. It argues that empathy is a poor moral guide. It leads to bad decisions.
↗Paul Bloom on the Psychology of Children, and the Morality of Empathy and Disgust (Conversations with Tyler, Ep. 218)conversationswithtyler.com 1st of 2 in this piece
- TC
Tyler Cowen quoted
Economist at George Mason University
Their wordsThe signaling-empathy answers I find quite uninteresting, and I think a lot of my listeners do, too. Yet people will just keep on doing this, and I get frustrated. Then I think, “Well, Tyler, you should turn a bit more against empathy for this reason.” And I think that’s correct.
↗Paul Bloom on the Psychology of Children, and the Morality of Empathy and Disgust (Conversations with Tyler, Ep. 218)conversationswithtyler.com 2nd of 2 in this piece
- 7 weeks earlier
- SG
Seth Godin quoted
Marketing author and daily blogger
Their wordsIt means that you have to extend yourself with empathy to the person you're seeking to serve, to the person who the work is for. And you have to extend yourself not just through space, but through time into the future, announcing something that might or might not work. You don't know yet. That's what makes it creative. If you exert the emotional labor to do those two things, sometimes you will have a successful creative outcome. That's a choice.
↗Seth Godin: "Failure is Learning on Your Way to Mastery" and Other Advice for Creativity (The Knowledge Project #105, published 23 February 2021)youtube.com 11th of 16 in this recording
- 8 weeks earlier
- NC
Nick Cave quoted
Australian songwriter and writer
Their wordsI suppose I do this by practising compassion rather than empathy – being moved by someone’s suffering and wanting to help, rather than putting myself in their position and feeling their pain. Standing a step away and seeking to assist someone in need, rather than being disabled by their despair, seems to be the way to manage these things.
- 4 weeks earlier
- PB
Paul Bloom quoted
Their wordsThe various versions of VR out there, high-tech and low-tech, are terrible empathy machines. After using them, you often end up with less of an understanding of other lives than you started with.
↗Virtual Reality is a terrible empathy machinesmallpotatoes.paulbloom.net 1st of 3 in this piece
- PB
Paul Bloom quoted
Their wordsBut in general, we are nowhere near as good at empathy as we think we are.
↗Virtual Reality is a terrible empathy machinesmallpotatoes.paulbloom.net 2nd of 3 in this piece
- 10 months earlier
- JZ
Julie Zhuo quoted
Co-founder of Sundial; former vice president of product…
Our readingEffective writing requires empathy for the reader, not only thought about what you want to say.
Their wordsBut effective writing is a two-way street and requires empathy for your reader.
↗The Looking Glass: Reader Empathy and Weird Peoplelg.substack.com
- 3 years earlier
- WB
Wendy Behary quoted
Psychotherapist, founder of The Cognitive Therapy Center…
Their wordsIn 30+ years of working with narcissistic men mostly - yes, it is possible for people to change. And even narcissists can change. Now, I don't really believe anyone changes completely, but it is possible to get meaningful change.
- 8 months earlier
- AG
Adam Grant quoted
Their wordsIt doesn't matter how much empathy you feel for your group if it leads you to devalue other groups. We need more rational compassion: reflective concern for people different from us. You don't have to share their feelings to care about their feelings.
↗GRANTED: A more nuanced view of empathy, confidence, and culture fitadamgrant.substack.com
- 13 months earlier
- SN
Satya Nadella quoted
Chairman and chief executive officer of Microsoft
Our readingFor a leader creating anything new, the skill needed more than any other is a deep sense of empathy.
Their wordsif you think about creating anything new, any new product, any new business, as a leader, the one skill that you need more than any other skill is that deep sense of empathy.
↗In Chicago Booth visit, Microsoft CEO discusses what he looks for in a leadernews.uchicago.edu 1st of 2 in this piece
- SN
Satya Nadella quoted
Our readingEmpathy is not just for personal life: it is core to product development and to creating any value.
Their wordsI actually think that empathy is not something that you reserve just for your personal life, even though it helps a lot. Obviously you need it to exist as a human in the world. But it is also core to product development. It is core to creation of any value.
↗In Chicago Booth visit, Microsoft CEO discusses what he looks for in a leadernews.uchicago.edu 2nd of 2 in this piece
- 13 months earlier
- AS
Arielle Schwartz quoted
Clinical psychologist, EMDR consultant and yoga teacher in Boulder, Colorado
Their wordsAs an adult, I can now choose when and how much to sense and feel. I also give myself permission not to feel sometimes.
↗Empathy (or how to adjust your faucet…)drarielleschwartz.com
- 20 months earlier
- KN
Ken Norton quoted
Executive coach for product leaders
Their wordsMost of the other traits on my list – such as kindness, fairness, or being a good friend – all stem from empathy.
↗Empathy and Product Managementbringthedonuts.com 1st of 2 in this piece
- KN
Ken Norton quoted
Their wordsBut empathy is also essential to leading a team, especially for PMs who tend to have responsibility without authority and must earn the respect and support of others.
↗Empathy and Product Managementbringthedonuts.com 2nd of 2 in this piece
- 13 years earlier
- PG
Paul Graham quoted
Co-founder of Y Combinator and Viaweb
Their wordsEmpathy is probably the single most important difference between a good hacker and a great one. Some hackers are quite smart, but when it comes to empathy are practically solipsists.
The line under a date fills as the words age, a quarter at a time: past a month, six months, a year, and three years. Empty means said within the last month; full, more than three years ago. It says when, not whether it still holds — a change of mind is marked on the claim itself.
Dashed means we only know the words existed by that date; they may be older.